Environmental Studies

This course introduce the concepts of environmental impact and resource efficiency. It describes methods to measure and manage environmental impact and resource efficiency, focusing on the life cycle assessment of products in particular, and other system analytical tools in general. The course discusses the results of assessment studies measuring environmental impact and resource efficiency and provides examples from different product groups, including bio-sourced and chemical products.

This course provides a sociological perspective on economic, social, and political processes, focusing especially on global social change and sustainable development. Students acquire the knowledge required to understand and critically examine the discussions pursued about the global social change that marks modernity, focusing especially on the post-war period. The course includes four modules, this is the first module: Classical and Modern Social Analysis. The first module addresses classical and modern sociological theory, as well as the economic, social, and political transformations in focus of classical sociology. Emphasis is placed on the processes leading up to the social transformations that are usually covered by the concept of modernity, such as the emergence of sovereign nation-states, capitalism, bureaucracies, rationalization, and increasing division/differentiation of labor in and between countries. Furthermore, the module utilizes the different theories of science positions originally developed in classical sociology but still marking the social sciences.

This course on environmental justice examines how environmental processes and policies interact with race, class, gender, and indigeneity to differentially affect people's exposure to environmental harm, and their ability to participate in environmental decision-making. It analyzes environmental injustice in relation to histories of colonialism, as well as contemporary processes of globalized capitalism. The course engages in case studies, discussions, and group projects, fostering a critical view on reconciling localized justice struggles with planetary environmental crises.

This course provides an overview of the field of marine drug discovery and development and is designed to meet the needs of oceanographers, biologists and chemists interested in this topic. This course focuses on the entire process of drug discovery and development which necessitates the expertise of many disciplines such as marine natural product chemistry, biology, organic and medicinal chemistry, pharmacology, pharmacokinetics, toxicology, and basic and clinical medicine. In addition, basic skills in the discovery of marine drug hits will be practiced in the lab.  

This course investigates how earth scientists reconstruct past climates, and demonstrate, using selected case studies, what drives climate change and how ecosystems respond to these forcing factors. Upon successful completion of the course, students are able to understand the various sources of sedimentological, chemical, and biological data (proxies) earth and environmental scientists use to reconstruct ancient environments and climates, with particular emphasis on environmental reconstructions using microfossils and isotopic data; the basic principles of stratigraphy; how changes in sedimentary sequences over time record phenomena such as changes in sea level, and astronomical forcing of climate; and a series of key events involving global environmental change that are recorded in the geological record of Ireland (including snowball Earth events, carboniferous palaeoenvironments, and landscape evolution over the past few thousand years). This course is taught online. 

This course offers a political history of the environment through the mobilization of the working classes around issues related to common goods, industrial risks, health, and pollution. It also takes a global, long-term approach to these mobilizations. The course is designed as an introduction to research: it first introduces scientific writing through a reading note based on an article, then analyzes primary sources to present findings at a "mini-colloquium," and finally provides an opportunity to write a collective research article.

How does access to nature and to greenspaces impact on human health? This course will take a living labs approach to studying the ways in which gardens, parks, flora, fauna, and biodiversity more generally may impact on the health of humans and human communities. We will use a social justice lens in our study, examining how access and engagement with nature and the outdoors is unequally distributed within communities and how environmental injustice may contribute to the observed correlation between social inequality and health inequality.

This course introduces the science of ecology and its role in understanding environmental processes. The course covers both the major concepts and their real-world applications. Topics include models in ecology, organisms in their environment, evolution and extinction, life history strategies, population biology, ecological interactions, community ecology, ecological energetics, nutrient cycling, and landscape ecology.

This course is part of the Laurea Magistrale degree program and is intended for advanced level students. Enrolment is by permission of the instructor. The course aims to provide students with an in-depth knowledge of the complex phenomenon of climate change, as well as an understanding of the main interdependencies between the economic and political aspects and the local, supranational, and global dimensions. At the end of the course, students are able to: a) identify the main consequences on some areas of the economy, society, and international politics; b) describe the origins and evolution of international agreements and programs aimed at addressing the problem of climate change; c) understand the impact of climate change on different regions/areas of the world; and d) critically analyze the effects of climate change on political and economic development, with particular attention to the impact on poverty. Course contents include: an introduction to development and climate change; observed and projected impacts of climate change; climate change diplomacy: history and development of international climate change agreements; climate change mitigation; vulnerability to climate change and adaptation; climate action in the context of the Sustainable Development Agenda; and climate justice and equity: intergenerational and gender perspectives.

This course covers the evolution of environmental legislation; the concept of environmental crisis and sustainability; circular economy; socio-environmental impacts resulting from climate change; solid waste; and energy sources.